Instant Messaging (IM) is an increasingly popular form of communication. IM allows near real-time exchange of text or other media type messages between users. IM allows a user to maintain a buddy or contact list, listing people with whom the user might exchange instant messages. The user selects a person from the list that is currently logged-in with respect to the IM service and establishes a data communication session with a remote device being used by the selected person. In a personal computer type implementation, the IM software on the user's device opens a window on the computer display. Typically, the window includes two parts, each of which provides a slightly different functionality. One part of the window allows the user to type messages for transmission to the remote user device, whereas the other part receives messages from the remote user device and displays those messages to this user. The remote user's device will provide similar input and display functions, and in this way, both users can read what the other has typed. Originally developed for communications between users of personal computers (PCs) via the Internet, IM services have been expanded to provide similar service to mobile users of wireless communication devices.
Although there are a number of different approaches, IM services typically offer a mechanism to monitor presence of the users on the network, that is to say availability for IM communications. In most IM services, each IM user has a contact list. If a user has a person in his or her contact list, the user also appears in the contact list of the other person. Each user logs-in with a server to indicate presence and provide necessary information for routing messages to the user's communication device, and the server provides notice to other IM users based on the contact list(s). Mobile instant messaging (MIM) services distribute presence status information of users of mobile stations in a similar fashion.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,120,455 to Chen et al. discloses a technique for exchanging messages between a mobile device and a plurality of IM services, and in so doing provides a background description of an implementation of IM service for mobile station users. The user can subscribe to presence updates, which include presence information for at least one contact on the user's contact list. As IM users log in and out of IM service, one or more IM community servers send presence updates to an IM gateway of the mobile network. When the mobile user logs in, or from time to time thereafter, the IM Gateway sends any updates for parties on the MIM user's contact list that it has available for delivery to the MIM client in the user's mobile station. The client receives the updates and can refresh the contact list with updated presence information of the other IM users on the MIM user's contact list.
Also, IM services have provided enhanced notice that allows users to distribute additional information with the presence notifications. In an available example of MIM service, the user has the choice of selecting a canned status or manually entering a status text. For example, “At Home”, “At Work” or “At 2785 Mitchell Drive;” and the selected text would be provided to the other parties on the user's contact list. In this way, the other parties would know not only that the user was on-line but that he or she was currently at the location indicated in the text. However, such use of a canned or manually entered status text places the burden on the user to enter the custom text and to determine the address of the location. This is particularly burdensome in the context of a mobile IM user, where typing long text on the mobile device is a daunting task to the average user. These disadvantages could lead to wrong information being displayed to all his or her contacts. Also, by definition, the user is mobile, and the location information may change frequently and require frequent inconvenient re-entry by the user.
The mobile telecom industry has been developing a number of technologies to locate mobile stations, both for emergency services (e.g. 911) and for location based applications. In an increasingly common network implementation, the mobile station has the capability to take Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements and communicate those measurements to one or more network elements for processing, depending on the particular application. Typically, a position determining entity (PDE) communicates with a GPS equipped mobile station (MS) to determine the location of the MS, and for non-emergency services, a Location Proxy Server (LPS) makes that information accessible to various user applications, including some applications that reside on mobile stations.
Hence, mobile networks exist today that provide both IM service, including presence notification service, as well as other services that utilize the PDE and GPS mobile stations to provide various location based services. United States Patent Application Publication No. 20020035605 to McDowell et al., for example, discloses an integrated platform providing presence service, IM service and location based service. However, that publication concentrates on application of the various services for ecommerce, real-time information distribution and network optimization; and does not specifically address the need for automatically integrating the mobile station location information into the presence notifications associated with the IM service itself.
Hence a need still exists for an automatic way to enter mobile user location information for IM service purposes, e.g. for distribution to parties on the user's IM contact list, with little or no involvement by the user. It would also be advantageous if the location data could be dynamically updated as the user roams.